Friday, March 10, 2017

Searching for the Enslaved Women of Schuyler Mansion

by Ian Mumpton

One of our ongoing projects at Schuyler Mansion is to
attempting to uncover the identities, relationships, and, where possible, the daily
lives of more than thirty people of African descent enslaved by the Schuyler
family. Two of our recent articles have focused on specific individuals or
groups of individuals mentioned in the surviving documentary evidence (to read them, click here or here). Both of
these articles have been about men, however the Schuylers lived off of the
labor of both men and women. It can be difficult to determine exact figures,
however later records suggest a near equal divide between male and female in
the enslaved population of the household. For example, in 1798, Philip Schuyler
was listed as owning eleven slaves, including three men and one boy, and three
women and two girls. Similarly, the manumission record filed after Philip’s
death in 1804 established the free-status of two men, two women, and three
children (two boys and one girl).

A modern recreation of a light laundry day. The enslaved
women of Schuyler mansion would have dealt with much more
clothing than this for a household as large as the Schuylers.

Clearly, the labor performed by enslaved women was
considered valuable enough for women to make up roughly 50% of the enslaved
workforce of the family. Despite this, women are mentioned far less frequently in
the surviving documentation than men. For example, a receipt from 1771 for shoe
purchases and repairs mentions twenty enslaved people by name. Fifteen of those
listed (75%) are men, while only five (25%) are women. This doesn’t necessarily
indicate a larger male population than female; simply that in the Fall and
Winter of 1771 more men needed new or repaired shoes than did women. This can
give us an indication of the differences between the work performed by enslaved
women and enslaved men. As mentioned in previous articles, many of the men were
tasked with transporting goods and people between Schuyler’s properties in
Albany and Saratoga. Others appear to have assisted with mill work and were put
to work cutting timber. This sort of labor would have worn out shoes more
quickly than the primarily indoor, domestic work performed by women. That is
not to say that this work was necessarily more arduous than the hours of
hauling water (at least 260 lbs. of water were needed for a laundry day),
scrubbing clothing and dishes, and other chores tended to by enslaved women;
the nature of the work simply required more travel time, thereby causing men to
appear more frequently in the receipt.

One of the difficulties in reconstructing specific details
about the lives of enslaved women in the Schuyler household arises from the
fact that, unlike their male counterparts, women are very rarely referred to by
name in the surviving documents. Of the thirty eight named individuals clearly identifiable
in the documents as enslaved, twenty-nine (76%) of those identified by name are
men or boys. Nine (fewer than 25%) are women or girls: Bet, Britt, Diana, Jane,
Libey, Moll, Phoebe, Silvia, and Tallyho. Instead, Philip's letters and business
papers refer to women in general terms, even in sources where men are referred
to by name. For example, according to a medical receipt from 1755, Philip
paid for medicine for two enslaved people. The man is identified as Mink, while
the woman is only identified as “your Negro woman”. In 1762, the Schuyler
family paid for the field labor of “a Negro man and Wench”, neither of whom are
named in the source. In 1788 John Bradstreet Schuyler received a letter from
his father, Philip, discussing his recent purchase of “a wench” from a man
named Wendell for £60.

A Woman Doing Laundry, date unknown, by Henry Robert
Moreland. This highly idealized image of domestic work bears
little resemblance to the reality of women's labor in the Schuyler
household, performed by enslaved women and girls.

Explaining this disparity is difficult, but there are
several possibilities. The documents which preserve this information were
written by Philip Schuyler, his sons, and their male business counterparts.
Most of them are letters describing travel or transportation of goods between
Albany and Saratoga. They are almost entirely devoid of discussion of domestic
tasks and daily life in the home, which would have been largely administrated
by Catharine herself. Unfortunately, only one of Catharine Schuyler’s letters has survived,
and it makes no reference to the enslaved servants. This lack of documentation
results in a historical silence regarding the labor of enslaved women - one
which is very hard to break.

One example from family sources which indicates the
differing spheres of male and female supervision of slaves comes from Johannes Van Rensselaer’s (the father of Catharine Van Rensselaer Schuyler) 1782 will which stipulated that
his wife was to receive “one negro wench” and “a negro
boy called Rob” upon his death. In this case the woman is unspecified because Mrs. Van Rensselaer was expected
to choose who she wants to keep, however John specifies that she also keep Rob.
Rob is described as a coachman, and his labor would have fallen under John’s
supervision.

A 19th century Abolitionist print depicting the breaking of a family,
as an infant is sold away from their mother. While intended to arouse sympathy
for the enslaved, the raw emotion of the print captures the reality of too many
individuals who found themselves separated from their loved ones.

More often it is possible to perceive enslaved women in
terms of their relationships with other people. For instance, Philip mentions to
one of his children in a letter from 1782 that, “Your mama will strive with all
in her power to procure you a good wench[.] They are rare to be met with, the two
which I bought Last fall out of Charity, least [sic] their master… should
dispose of them contrary to their inclinations, prove worthless in the extreams
[sic].” While neither woman is mentioned by name, this tells us several things.
First, that these two women had some sort of close relationship, be that mother
and daughter, sisters, or simply close friends. Second, we know that this
relationship was strong enough for them to indicate to Philip their desire not
to be separated. Separation from loved ones was a common situation for enslaved
New Yorkers, as the number of slaves owned by any one family was relatively
small, “necessitating” the sale of family members away from each other.*

While the daily lives of the women enslaved by the Schuyler
family may be hidden by scarce historical resources, even more so than for
their male counterparts, by combining close readings of the existing sources
with demographic records and a contextual understanding of the wider
experiences of enslaved women, we hope to begin to uncover more information
about their experiences in some of our upcoming articles. Stay tuned! In the
meantime, make sure to check out other series on the restoration of the mansion, explore the fascinating face of the Revolutionary War in the Northern Department, explore our collections and documentary evidence, and challenge some longstanding myths with Mansion Mythbusters.
What sorts of questions do you have about the lives of “the Servants”? Let us
know in the comments!

For an examination of the amount of labor that went into tasks like laundry, click here to read an excellent interpretive piece from Woodville Plantation in Pennsylvania.

* To what degree Philip attempted to avoid this or not will
be the topic of an upcoming article.